Many computing devices are battery powered and for these devices it is beneficial to reduce their overall power consumption. Reduced power consumption enables increased battery life or alternatively the size, weight and cost of the battery can be reduced. It is also beneficial to reduce the power consumption of mains powered devices (i.e. non-battery powered devices) for environmental reasons and reduce operating cost.
One approach to minimizing the power of computing devices is to shut down or suspend the device, and/or to switch off associated devices, such as a display, when the device is not in use. The device may subsequently be woken up by the user through user input (e.g. by hitting the space bar or pressing the power button). Another approach is to provide a reduced power mode which is used whenever the device is not connected to mains electricity, e.g. by reducing the brightness of the display or running the CPU more slowly.